Luis has always been passionate about fitness due to a personal interest in improving his own physique. Always curious in learning the “whys and how’s” of how it all works, he has been studying and researching nutrition and strength training since he was 17.

Upon discovering ketogenic diets in 2001, Luis has been on a low carb regime ever since, which he has used to favorably recomposition his body and improve his health,

Due to this, Luis decided to develop KETOGAINS as to share his experiences and knowledge and help people attain their health and fitness goals.

Luis is regarded as one of the most experienced and knowledgeable persons on Low-Carb / Ketogenic dieting, and is the “go to guy” when applying a Low-Carb diet for Bodybuilding and Strength Training by well-known and respected insiders, leaders, influencers of the low carb/paleo and general fitness community

This book is the next step in the evolution of the paleo template (pun intended). This should be considered Paleo 2.0. Robb has done a great job of taking the base of his experience and success from his previous book The Paleo Solution and has cranked it up to 11. In that book he does a great job explaining the rationale of a diet based on a template of ancestral health, and gives a very good outline and structure on how to do so. And that’s great… for a start.

But, why do so many fail, even with a good template? Why is it some people who were eating sweet potatoes on their paleo plan have great results, and others just could not see the scale budge (not saying that the scale is all that great of a measure for health, but still)? Why is it that some could cut out the refined sugars as easy as putting on their socks, and others were at risk of being found in the basement broom closet stuffing a bag of Snickers bars in their face at 3 in the morning? Have you yourself ever found yourself innocently snacking on a handful of potato chips and the next thing you realize you’re holding the bag above your head trying to catch and crumbs or dust that might be settled at the bottom? This book is an answer to these questions.

You see, as Robb describes wonderfully in this book, it turns out that we humans have a lot or responses and triggers built into our internal circuitry. And this science isn’t necessarily cutting edge. This stuff has been around for a while, but the folks that have been most keen on the research aren’t necessarily health professionals or public health servants, but the corporations and marketers selling cheap, refined food stuffs, alcohol, and even our apps and social media.

What I really respect about Robb is his keen ability to take seemingly completely different areas of science and show how it’s all related. An example of this is Chapter 3: Mosquitos, Appetite, and Hyperpalatable Food. In this wonderful chapter he shows how genetic mutation and wiring (in this example the advantage of Sickle Cell Anemia and it’s advantage in areas plagued by malaria), to hacking our appetite through variety of flavors and textures (aka hyperpalatability) and how that plays with the hedonistic (pleasure) centers of our brain. He even draws a super interesting parallel between this overstimulation to porn, another form of “supernormal” stimuli.

He then goes on in the first part of the book to cover a bit of digestion, the gut microbiome, and these can play with glucose metabolism as well. The need for quality sleep, lots of movement, and a sense of community are also covered in JUST enough detail for it to be useful, but not to waterlog you with an unnecessary amount of density. The book being broken up into 2 parts, the first part is all about the WHYs of tying all of this together. The second part is all about the HOW.

Part 2 really kicks off the more typical diet book how-to application of what you learned in part 2. This includes the good ol’ standby: the 30 day meal plan. In this book the 30 day plan has two options, the first being more of a standard paleo diet and the second being an autoimmune option. I thought this was smart as some folks with autoimmune disorders can’t handle some foods allowed in a typical paleo diet such as eggs and nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc).

What separates Wired to Eat from the other diet books is what comes AFTER the 30 day meal plan. Now that the 30 days have gone by and the palate has had a chance to reboot to a more natural state of being, this is the point where we can really geek out: The 7 Day Carb Test. Here Robb takes you through a protocol where you eat a different prescribed form of carbohydrate, you track using pretty inexpensive methods, and you get a sense of how your body handles different forms of carbohydrates. Some folks might find that eating a sweet potato gives them a nice stable blood sugar and energy, but they may absoultely spike and crash when they eat oatmeal. Others might be just fine with the oatmeal, but find that black beans really jack with their blood sugars. Or, you could be like me, and find that almost all of them wreck you.This form of individualized nutrition is, in my opinion, the way we need to be going from here on out.

Robb rounds out part two with my favorite chapter, Chapter 14: Hammers, Drills, and Ketosis. He does a great little highlight of what nutritional ketosis is, how it can be used therapeutically in different situations such as diabetes (type 1 and 2), cancer, Alzheimer’s/dementia, and (of course) weightloss. Remember when I talked about that person who basically was wrecked in all forms of carbs during the 7 day carb test? You might really want to read and re-read this chapter.

So there you have it. As I said, I think this book acts greatly as both a sequel to his first book and as a new, stand-alone work. This is really the next step we need to take in order to customize our nutrition to fit our specific, individual needs. All that being said, I don’t think this book is going to change any minds if you already have an issue with this ancestral health template. If you already think paleo is bulls*&t, think it’s only about calories in vs calories out, and that the Twinkies Diet proves that nutrient quality doesn’t matter, I’ve got a ball you can have and a highway you can play catch in. For those really looking to take the reigns on their metabolism and are ready to play the long game, this book is for you.

*Youtube is being grouchy, I’ll link to the video once it finally goes through*

Hey gang! We have a GREAT interview for you today. We go into keto, low-carb, paleo, fasting, diabetes, you name it!

Marty is an engineer whose interest in nutrition wasspawned out of necessity trying tobetter manage his wife’s Type 1 diabetes as well as his own family history of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

In early 2015 he started bloggingat OptimisingNutrition.com. He tries to provide clarity around many of the confusing and conflicting issues in nutrition, often using a quantitative approach.

While his blog posts can sometimes go deep on a topic, he has also worked to develop a shortlist ofoptimal foods to suit different goals by balancing the sometimes-competing parameters of nutrient density, insulin load and energy density.

His most recent project is the Nutrient Optimiser which consolidates histhinking into an automated system thatreviews a person’s current dietto provide a shortlist of recommended foods to provide the nutrients they arenot getting enough of while supporting their goals, whether they be diabetes control, weight loss, bodybuilding or athletic performance.

Welcome to the Ketodontist podcast with your host Dr. Matt. We’re here to explore the worlds of low carb and ketogenic diets, primal and paleo lifestyles, and oral and whole-body health. We’re taking the best information from the leading minds in health and wellness and making those worlds collide! This is the Ketodontist podcast.

Hello again! Dr. Matt here checking in for the end of week 1. It’s been a pretty great week far. Other than on Wednesday, I really didn’t have any problems with cravings, and at no point did I have experience any real hunger.

As far as exercise this week, I didn’t really do too much. Monday I did a my body weight circuit which consists of the Primal movements outlined in the Primal Blueprint (which I highly recommend picking up the newest version, which you can get here). That workout looks like this:

Standard Push-ups: 3 sets of 10

Air Squats: 3 sets of 20

Pull-ups: 3 sets of 10

Plank: 4 sets of 30 second holds

Now, my starting at 330 lbs, I had to modify. I did as many regular push-ups as I could do until I started to fail, and would finish on my knees. I had no problems with squats, just need to work on my depth. Pull-ups are being done with resistance bands right now. Once I get down to 260, I’ll start doing assisted pull-ups. And plank is being done on my hands, and not my forearms.

That was Monday’s workout. The rest of the week I tried to get as much walking in as I could over my lunch break, but I didn’t really get another workout in until yesterday (Saturday). I woke up and did a 30 minute DDPYoga Workout. That was it for real exercise, but I will tell you that the rest of my Saturday was spent taking stuff out of storage and moving all day. We cleaned out the back of my dental office getting ready for the remodel that starts tomorrow, and we had to move stuff that looked like it’d been in that building for the last 60 years. It was kind of cool the old-old school dental equipment (I’m surprised it wasn’t belt driven with a foot pedal), but that stuff was HEAVY to move. After my team and I finished with that, then I went to help my folks move stuff out of their storage unit. Which ended up taking 4 truck loads. So yesterday was a VERY active day.

Alright, so with all that let’s take a look at where I’m at.

Weight:

Boom! Down over 12 lbs in less than a week. Now let me be clear, a lot of this is water weight. I want to make sure both you and I are fully aware of this. The reason why a lot of folks lose a ton of water weight when beginning primal, LCHF, or keto diets is because of two things: insulin and glycogen. As noted by the American Journal of Physiology [1], when insulin levels are lowered the kidneys start getting rid of excess sodium from the body. Lower insulin can also help improve blood pressure as also noted in that study.

Next up is glycogen. It’s been said that a healthy adult can store around 400 grams of glycogen in the liver, and about 100 grams in the muscle. This is the conventional wisdom, but I’m having trouble locate the actual scientific sources of this, so take it with a grain of salt. But let’s say the conventional wisdom is correct. (Edit: Busted out my Textbook of Medical Physiology by Guyton & Hall 11th edition, and they state that liver cells can store up to 5-8% of their weight in the form of glycogen and muscle cells can store 1-3%. Page 832 of this edition if you want to check it out).

So that’s roughly 500 grams of glycogen storage. And each gram of glycogen caries 3 grams of water [2]. So that means if you deplete you glycogen stores, you can be losing 1.5 kg or 3.3 lbs in water weight.

So of the 13 lbs I lost this week, was it ALL water weight? Doubtful, but I’m sure it played a part. What will be interesting is from this point forward. Do I have that much more excess water weight to lose? If not, how will it effect the rate at which I lose? Also, I’ll be picking up a blood pressure cuff to use so I can start reporting that as well.

Ketone level:

Getting closer! Still not quite to a state of nutritional ketosis, but I’m on my way. A normal person can enter nutritional ketosis relatively quickly, 2-4 days usually. Here it’s taken me over a week. That goes to show how insulin resistant I truly am. It also shows how I need to be super diligent. If I were to slip up or have a “cheat”, it could take me a whole week to get back into ketosis! Not worth it.

That’s it for week 1! Stay tuned as I’ll chime in mid-week for a quick check in.

Hey gang, I wanted to give a quick update. Things have been going pretty well. Days 1 and 2 went without a hitch. Day 3 I had a pretty big dip in motivation and energy. Unsure if it was because of diet or just because Tuesday was a tough day at the office and wiped me out. That being said, still sticking 100% to the meal plan. No problems with hunger so far. Did have some wicked Diet Coke cravings on Wednesday, but I was able to fight them off.

Day 3 reading

As you can see, no change in the meter yet. Which doesn’t worry me too much, it can take a few day.

Day 5 reading

Slight uptick, but still not into nutritional ketosis. That takes a reading of 0.5. But we’re getting there. Will take another reading, and my next weigh in, on Monday.

Today, February 6th (EDIT: I know, this wasn’t posted until 2/7; but it WAS written on 2/6), marks my 1st day under a fairly strict, 90 day self-experiment. I will fully admit, I have not been practicing what I preach lately. I have not been eating primal (booze and diet soda isn’t considered primal in case if you were wondering), and I haven’t been sticking to whole foods like I should be. I’ve been using the transition with the offices and all the travel lately as an excuse. And yes, while being on the road 4 out of the 5 weekends (New Year’s included) in January wasn’t a big help, there still isn’t a legit excuse. Now that I’m done traveling so much and things are settling down at the office, I can do a deep dive into getting my nutrition on point and healing my body.

So here’s the deal:

For the next 90 days, I am going to be strict primal and keto. Meaning no processed foods (other than some vitamins and supplements I’ll describe later), and I will be testing my BLOOD ketones using my newly acquired Precision Xtra blood glucose and ketone meter.

For my breakdown in calories, I used the Ketogains macro calculator. This is IMO one of the best nutritional calculators on the Internet, especially if you’re wanting to be in ketosis. You can find it here: http://ketogains.com/ketogains-calculator/

My breakdown is like this: 1860 calories (shooting for a 25% deficit). Shooting for about 150 grams of protein, 25 grams or less of carbs, and 125 grams of fat.

Meal plan and supplements:

In the morning after any recordings needed for the day, a Keto OS shake. Keto OS is an supplement that is a supply of exogenous (made outside of the body) ketones in the form of beta hydroxybutyrate. I’ve been reading some interesting stuff from folks like Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Dominic D’Agostino on the therapeutic benefit of exogenous ketones that I’m going to give it a try. We’ll see how it goes. That being said, I AM NOT RELYING on this. No pill, powder, or potion will make up for a crappy diet. Total calories: 41-100 depending on the form and flavor. I’ll be alternating between Max Maui Punch and Orange Dream.

As far as exercise goes, I’ll be doing some bodyweight work (pushups, squats, pull ups, and planks), along with some yoga and kettlebell swings. And I’m going to try to get out for a walk over my lunch hour if the weather permits. This exercise is really for general health, strength, and flexibility. It’s not really to lose weight, as many studies have shown that exercise is ineffective for weight loss

There you have it. I’ll be checking in at least once a week, but ideally I’ll be posting when I measure blood ketones which I’ll be doing every other day. I’d do every day, but those strips are damn expensive.